As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As processors, graphics cards, random access memory (RAM) and other components in information handling systems have increased in clock speed and power consumption, the amount of heat produced by such components as a side-effect of normal operation has also increased. Often, the temperatures of these components need to be kept within a reasonable range to prevent overheating, instability, malfunction, and damage leading to a shortened component lifespan. Accordingly, heatsinks and/or air movers (e.g., cooling fans and blowers) have often been used in information handling systems to cool information handling systems and their components.
Mechanical risers may be used to provide mechanical support to certain types of information handling resources when installed in information handling systems. For example, risers are often used with information handling resources that have a card-type form factor, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) cards.
One difficulty that has arisen is the need to build separate types of risers to accommodate various different types of information handling resources. For example (continuing in the discussion of PCIe cards), both full-height and low-profile PCIe cards are in common use, having differing size dimensions. In particular, full-height PCIe cards may typically have a bracket height of 120 mm, while low-profile PCIe cards may typically have a bracket height of 79.2 mm. Building and stocking multiple types of risers to accommodate these size differences may significantly complicate the logistics for manufacturers or assemblers of information handling systems.
Other examples of information handling resources that are compatible with a single type of connector, but that have different standardized sizes in at least one dimension, will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure.
In light of the above, it would be desirable for a single type of riser to be able to accommodate more than one size or type of information handling resource, particularly (but not necessarily) in the case where a single type of connector is usable with the different information handling resources.
It should be noted that the discussion of a technique in the Background section of this disclosure does not constitute an admission of prior-art status. No such admissions are made herein, unless clearly and unambiguously identified as such.